High-tech campaigns of Nandan Nilekani, V Balakrishnan

Updated on March 25, 2014 5:36 pm

Nandan Nilekani, former CEO, Infosys; V Balakrishnan, former CFO, Infosys. One the Congress candidate from Bangalore South, the other standing on an AAP ticket from Bangalore Central. The Sunday Express follows their high-tech campaigns as they wade into the rough and tumble of politics. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

For the 1.8 million voters in Bangalore South, one of the city’s three Lok Sabha constituencies, there is simply no getting away from the fact that tech billionaire Nandan Nilekani is contesting the April 17 election. Long before the Congress declared his candidacy, much before the election dates were declared, and even before he became a formal party member, Nilekani’s election campaign had already got off to a high-velocity, high-profile start. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

Nilekani’s fight is tricky for more reasons than one. Opponent Ananth Kumar of the BJP has coasted to five consecutive Lok Sabha victories. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

The contest is at least three-sided with the entry of an Aam Aadmi Party candidate, child rights activist Nina Nayak. The timing is fiddly for Nilekani — he is contesting on a Congress ticket when the party’s standing has depleted to a historic low. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

With little previous political or election experience of his own, Nilekani, 58, has to give it his all. (Photo: Twitter)

In his kurta and jeans, the Aam Aadmi Party cap slightly askew on his head, former Infosys CFO and candidate from Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency V Balakrishnan wades through the chaos of Russell Market, an 80-year-old building in Shivajinagar in the heart of the city that was gutted in a fire two years ago. In the afternoon heat, swarms of flies hover over meat, fish and rotting piles of refuse. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

A vegetarian and a former corporate board member accustomed to an air-conditioned office, Bala, as he is known to his friends and followers, is out of his element here. “Do you know how I convinced my wife and my family, who are entrenched in middle-class values, to let me join politics? I said, if nothing else, I will at least lose 10 kg,” jokes the 49-year-old, halfway through a day-long padayatra. To win in this particularly tricky constituency where minorities account for over 20 per cent of the voter base, the AAP broom must dust away at its deepest, darkest corners. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

“What has the sitting MP been doing? Corruption hai yahan?” Bala gingerly asks the fruit and flower sellers who rebuilt Russell Market all on their own. His small, high-energy campaign team does the rest of the proselytising. A silver-haired AAP supporter from the Muslim traders’ community reminds his friends that offering or accepting a bribe is haraam under Islam. (IE Photo: Kashif Masood)

Bala’s campaign manager Aditi Mohan, a former Army Major, talks in a measured voice about how the candidate had sacrificed his high-paying job at Infosys to “work for you”. People readily put on Aam Aadmi caps and murmur vows of support.(IE Photo: Kashif Masood)